Heart and War// Feathers and Stripes Book 2

Chapter 8

                       John was scared and worried all at the same time as the akuma landed on Eliza. Eliza's eyes widened, and she started shaking, as if trying to get the new Hawkmoth out of her head. John reached out towards her, but she flinched away from him. John was scarcely aware of a tear sliding down his face as a purple and black mist engulfed her. When the mist lifted, Eliza looked like her old akumatized form, Mystic Peon, but there was a broken heart where her heart was, and that fact hurt him.

Eliza moved towards him, pain and anger in her now glowing eyes. John wearily backed up, knowing that she was akumatized and that would make her close in on her anger and hurt. John almost tripped over the trashcan with the burning letters, and another tear made it's way down his face as he remembered what she had said a few moments ago.

"I'm erasing myself from your story" She had said, her hair messed up from brushing it up with her hands. John's eyes widened, and he ran to the nearest bathroom to transform. Roaar came out from his pocket and looked at John with disappointment.

"Don't." John managed to stop his kwami from yelling at him to. It was enough that his wife was akumatized because of his stupidity. Her words kept ringing in his ears as he transformed, and he had the urge to scream back at her when she was unakumatized, but he knew he was in no position to do so, and he knew it was just because he was angry at himself.

Instead, he ran out of the bathroom, and found Mystic Peon staring at the burning letters silently. He was confused. No akumatized person had ever stayed idle and silent like this before. It was almost like her efforts to resist the akumatization had failed, but at the same time allowed her conscious to stay the same as when she was not akumatized. Tigre slowly walked in, nervous.

"What will the children say? To know that their loving father has betrayed their mother like this? the scandal of it will hurt all of them, not just you and I" She said, her voice shaking as she looked at him. Tigre glanced at the ground, uncertain of how to respond. He made a step towards her.

Mystic Peon let out a sob that projected a aura of her emotions that effected Tigre. His sadness and grief were heightened, and he felt a stab of fury and something darker deep in him. To know that he had made her feel like this want to go back and never even meet Lila Rossi.

"I'll give you the akumatized item, only because I don't want to be akumatized, but don't think for a moment that you are forgiven, or that you have not just thrown everything away." Mystic Peon said in a cold tone that suggested no argument.

Tigre got the akumatized item just as Ladybug and Chat stepped in through the window. Ladybug did her thing, and Mystic Peon turned back to Eliza, who still stared at the burning letters.

Chat gave Tigre a look of contempt, and so did Ladybug. Tigre winced.

"We're standing at her side" Chat hissed, holding the now crying Eliza close. Ladybug nodded, and then they left. Tigre went as far as the kids room before he collapsed into a crying heap on the floor.

"What have I done?"